The Greeks enjoy a special place in the construction of western culture and identity, and yet many of us have only the vaguest notion of what their culture was like. A few Greek myths at bedtime when we are kids, maybe a Greek tragedy like Sophokles' Oidipous when we are at school: these are often the only contact we have with the world of the ancient Mediterranean. The story of the Greeks, however, deserves a wider audience, because so much of what we esteem in our own culture derives from them: democracy, epic poetry, lyric poetry, tragedy, history writing, philosophy, aesthetic taste, all of these and many other features of cultural life enter the West from Greece. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi had inscribed over the temple, "Know Thyself." For us, that also means knowing the Greeks. We will cover the period from the Late Bronze Age, c. 1500 BC, down to the time of Alexander the Great, concentrating on the two hundred year interval from 600-400 BC.

The Roman Empire was one of the few great world states-one that unified a large area around the Mediterranean Sea-an area never subsequently united as part of a single state. Whereas the great achievements of the Greeks were in the realm of ideas and concepts (democracy, philosophy, art, literature, drama) those of the Romans tended to be in the pragmatic spheres of ruling and controlling subject peoples and integrating them under the aegis of an imperial state. Conquest, warfare, administration, and law making were the great successes of the Roman state. We will look at this process from its inception and trace the formation of Rome's Mediterranean empire over the last three centuries BC; we shall then consider the social, economic and political consequences of this great achievement, especially the great political transition from the Republic (rule by the Senate) to the Principate (rule by emperors). We shall also consider limitations to Roman power and various types of challenges, military, cultural, and religious, to the hegemony of the Roman state. Finally, we shall try to understand the process of the development of a distinctive Roman culture from the emergence new forms of literature, like satire, to the gladiatorial arena as typical elements that contributed to a Roman social order.

This course will survey the religions of the ancient Middle East, situating each in its historical and socio-cultural context and focusing on the key issues of concern to humanity: creation, birth, the place of humans in the order of the universe, death, and destruction. The course will cover not only the better-known cultures from the area, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, but also some lesser-known traditions, such as those of the Hurrians, or of the ancient Mediterranean town of Ugarit. Religion will not be viewed merely as a separate, sealed-off element of the ancient societies, but rather as an element in various cultural contexts, for example, the relationship between religion and magic and the role of religion in politics will be recurring topics in the survey. Background readings for the lectures will be drawn not only from the modern scholarly literature, but also from the words of the ancients themselves in the form of their myths, rituals, and liturgies.

This course will be an introduction to the art, architecture and minor arts that were produced during the three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history. This material will be presented in its cultural and historical contexts through illustrated lectures and will include visits to the collection of the University Museum.

This course uses ancient literature, historical sources and archaeological sources to explore how concepts of race and ethnicity operated in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and how people of minority races/ethnicites were perceived and lived. The course begins by asking how the discipline of classics has approached or avoided these subjects, and the role of race in contemporary debates about the study of the classical past. It then interrogates how ancient Greeks and Romans thought about race, and the allied but distinct category of ethnicity, and how these correspond, or not, to modern notions of race and racism. No knowledge of the ancient world is required. Structured, active in-class learning

This course introduces the history of God as understood by modern scholars of religion. Why do people believe in gods in the first place? How did so many people come to believe that there was only one god, and how is that god different from earlier gods? How is the God of Judaism different from that venerated by Christians and Muslims. And what is the future of God in a world shaped by secularism, capitalism, and climate-change? This course will address these and other questions in light of anthropology, psychology, intellectual history, and other approaches that scholars uses to illumine religion.

This class presents an introduction to economies before economics, a study of economic activity in the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Greece and Rome have been called some of the first "global" economies - they engaged in long-distance trade, introduced the first coinage systems, and built and manufactured at large scales. At the same time, they remained agrarian societies, with majority peasant populations, high levels of inequality and social systems that often placed social capital ahead of profit. Using textual sources, archaeology and techniques from the natural and social sciences, this class will not only look at basic elements of economic activity in the ancient world - demographics, trade, monetization, industry - but also ask critical questions about how - or if -modern economic methods can be applied to the distant past. No previous knowledge of the ancient world or economics is necessary.

What constituted an empire in antiquity and how was imperialism legitimized? Which measures were used to maintain and organize imperial power? How did foreign rule affect the daily life of people all over the Mediterranean? In this course we will discuss and compare ancient empires from Achaemenid Persia to Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic kingdoms of his successors to the emergence of Rome as one of the most successful and influential empires in world history. Topics that will be discussed include ancient ideas and concepts of imperial rule, patterns of political, economic and cultural power and their interrelations as well as imperial crises and local resistance. All texts will be discussed in translation. There are no prerequisites.

Cleopatra VII (70/69 30 BCE) is one of the most famous women in world history. She has been remembered, admired, and reproached as a power-hungry Hellenistic queen, as the last pharaoh of Egypt, as a self-confident female ruler, and as the vicious seductress of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Her supposedly extravagant lifestyle, her political schemes, but also her integrity in choosing suicide over submission have inspired poets, artists, and historians from her own time to our modern world. In this seminar, we will take a closer look at some of the common perceptions and stereotypes that have shaped the image of Cleopatra for more than 2000 years. The main focus, however, will be on the historical queen, her biography, and the political and cultural contexts of her life. We will use ancient literary texts, papyri, inscriptions, coins, and archaeological evidence to analyze Cleopatra's rise to power, how she presented herself to her subjects, and how she was perceived by others, as well as her role in the tumultuous events that led to the end of the Hellenistic period and the rise of imperial Rome under the rule of Augustus. No prerequisites, but some background in Hellenistic and/or Roman history will be helpful.

A course on Roman culture and society in a period of tumultuous political change, the lifetime of Julius Caesar (100-44BCE). Focuses on the interplay between shifting political and military realities and developments in social organization and literary production at Rome and in the wider Mediterranean world. The reception of Caesar in later ages will also be considered. Readings (all in translation) will include Catullus, Cicero, Lucretius, Plutarach, Sallust, Suetonius, and, of course, Caesar himself.

Iran - as a landmass and a political entity - was central to the ancient world in a variety of ways. Ancient Iranian Empires were of central importance to - and centrally located in - the ancient world. It was the successor kingdom to the Assyrians and Babylonians; the power against which Greece and Rome defined themselves; and the crucible in which various communities and models of rule developed. This course offers a survey of the history of the ancient Persianate world, focusing in particular on the political and imperial entities that rose to power, the cultural, political, mercantile, and other contacts they shared with their neighbors to the East and West, and the communities and religious groups that arose and flourished within their lands. Ancient Iranian empires rivaled the Greek and Roman Empires to their West, and the central and eastern Asian Empires to their east, and the ongoing history of diplomacy, cultural contact, and war between these regions was formative to each and to the ancient world as a whole. Iran was home to and similarly formative for a variety of religions, including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam, and a central question Ancient Iranian political powers sought to address was how to negotiate and address the variety of populations under their control. The course will conclude by studying how, rather than a simplistic story of decline, the strategies, policies, institutions, and memory of the Iranian Empires continued to shape early Islam, medieval imagination, and modern political regimes.

The neat, comforting narratives that we construct of the histories of ancient Greece and Rome cover up a collection of controversies and debates that continue to rage in contemporary scholarship. Can we use the Homeric epics as sources of early Greek history? Who was responsible for the Peloponnesian War? How can we best explain Rome's acquisition of empire? How new was the political revolution of Augustus? What were the main reasons for the rise of Christianity? In this course, we explore these and other controversies, focusing on both modern scholarship and the ancient sources. All texts will be discussed in translation. No prior knowledge of Ancient History is required, although it would be useful to have taken ANCH 026 and/or ANCH 027.

ANCH 303 Power and Peril: The Paradox of Monarchy among Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Jews

We imagine ancient Greece and Rome as the cradles of democracy and republicanism, early Judea as a pious theocracy, but monarchy was the most common and prevalent form of government in antiquity (and the premodern world in general). In this class, we will take a special look at kinship among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans to assess and discuss similarities, differences, and mutual influences. In all these cultures, the king was a polarizing figure in reality and in conception. On the one hand, some revered the monarch as ideal leader, and monarchy provided the language with which to describe and even imagine the very gods. On the other, monarchs were widely reviled in both theory and practice, from the Greek tyrants to biblical Saul. The Emperor Augustus loudly denied his own affinity to the office of king, even as he ruled alone and was revered as a god. In other words, kings stood both for the ideal and the worst form of government. This class confronts the paradox of monarchical rule and will, through the lens of the king, explore ideas of god, government, human frailty, and utopianism.

Under the Roman Empire, Jewish communities developed and flourished especially in the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Northern Africa, and Italy proper. In many of these cities, the Jews formed a considerable part of the population; they influenced the cultural, social, and political communal life and developed an identity that was distinctively different from that in Judea. In this seminar, we will trace Jewish life in the Diaspora under Roman rule. How did Jews and non-Jews interact? What was the legal status of Jewish communities under the Roman Empire? What caused conflicts and how were they solved? What can the history of Jewish Diaspora communities tell us about minorities in the Roman Empire in general? We will use literary texts, inscriptions, papyri, and archaeological material to answer these questions and many more.

Natural disasters occupy a powerful place in our imagination. Stories of floodsplagues, earthquakes and storms excite and horrify us, and communities mobilizetheir resources quickly in response to these events. In the ancient Mediterranean world, natural disasters could take on potent meaning, indicating the anger or disfavor of the gods, acting as warnings against certain courses of action, or confirmations of individuals' fears or suspicions about the world in which they lived. In this course, we explore the evidence for some disasters in the ancient Mediterranean world, the ways in which contemporaries reacted to those disasters and interpreted their causes. This project is, of necessity, multidisciplinary, involving textual, archaeological, geological, and comparative materials and drawing on methodologies from history, political and archaeological science, and the emerging field of disaster studies. In the process, we will gain an appreciation of the socialstructures of communities in the period, the thought-world in which they operated, and the challenges and opportunities thatattend a project of this sort. No prior knowledge of Ancient History is required, although it would be useful to have taken an introductory survey course. Texts will be discussed in translation.

An individual's life course is often reflected, enhanced, and defined by their relations to other individuals. This course will investigate the concept of kinship in the Roman world through textual, visual, and archaeological evidence. We will explore relationships at all levels of society from the imperial family to the slaves and freedmen who were part of larger households, in order to understand how different relationships shaped and structured interactions in Roman society. Together, we will explore the following questions: how were relationships and bonds represented in the ancient world? What structures were in place for families to perpetuate themselves through biological or adoptive means? How could non-Roman citizens create family connections through formal and informal channels? How could relationships be celebrated in life and commemorated in death? We will use written evidence from ancient historians, visual evidence like the Altar of Peace, and archaeological evidence from cemeteries to examine how Roman notions of kinship shaped life and death in different social milieu.

In this course, we will explore race and ethnicity in the Roman world by focusing on the life and works of Roman Africans and the ways in which non-African Romans engaged with and presented the peoples of Africa. The course covers Roman literature in translation from the comedies of Plautus produced in the late 3rd - 2nd centuries BCE, to African Christian writing of the 5th century CE. It also covers a wide range of genres: we will examine how Roman writers articulate questions of race in comedy and satire, epic, history, biography, and elegy among others. We will read African writers (Apuleius, Augustine) and ask how their Africanness influences their works. We will read Roman accounts of journeys to Africa, wars with Africa, and encounters with Africans to ask how the Romans saw themselves as different from or similar to Africans. The course will also explore in more general terms how Romans talk about race: did racism exist? What aspects of different cultures and peoples did Romans choose to emphasize when they talked of non-Romans?

This class is designed as a detailed investigation of the world created by Alexander the Great. We will cover the three hundred year period known as the Hellenistic Age from the career of Alexander the Great (354-323 BC) until the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium (31 BC). This was a period during which the world of the Greeks underwent extraordinary and far-reaching changes, as Greek culture was established as far afield as northwestern India, central Asia and Egypt. In the same period kingdoms controlled by Alexanders's Successors used Greek culture to define their rule, establishing a Greek culture of the elite in regions which previously had been dominated by the Persians. As Greek and non-Greek worlds collided, a new interpretation of Greek culture emerged, giving rise, among other things, to universities and professional schools, state subsidized health care, triumphalist architecture, the heroization of the noble savage, coinage with royal portraits, the deification of men and a multitude of other social, artistic and political forms familiar to us. It was an age of radical change, dislocation, as Greek populations colonized regions previously unkown to them.

Taught by: McInerney

Course not offered every year

Activity: Lecture

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 330 The Rise and Decline of Macedonia

In this course, we will study the rise and development of Macedonia from a tiny kingdom on the northern fringes of the Greek world to one of the major powers of the region and beyond. Regarded by the Greeks as an at least semi-barbarian culture on the periphery, Macedonia became the dominant power in the Greek world during the fourth century BC and its king Alexander the Great set out to conquer the world. After his death, Macedonia was one of the Hellenistic kingdoms competing for power and influence in the Mediterranean until it finally came under Roman control. Topics that will be discussed include questions of ethnicity and identity, Macedonian kingship, culture and society (including the role of women) and the role of Macedonian traditions in the Hellenistic era in general. Special emphasis will therefore be laid on critical reading and interpretation of ancient literary texts, documentary evidence and archaeological material. that will be discussed include questions of ethnicity and identity, Macedonian kingship, culture and society (including the role of women) and the role of Macedonian traditions in the Hellenistic era in general.

According to the stories the Romans told about the origins of their city, Rome began as a community of immigrants. As a growing metropolis and, eventually, the center of an empire, the city remained a magnet for people from other parts of the Empire and beyond. Foreigners came to the city as merchants and travelers, they settled here seeking a different and better life, pursuing a career, or escaping hardships in their home communities. Others were brought to Rome against their will, as prisoners or slaves. In this seminar, we will explore the different communities of foreigners and immigrants that shaped Rome. How and why did they move to the city? How did they experience their new home? How did they adapt to life in Rome and how, in turn, did they influence what we define as "Roman" today? Finally, what can the legal, social, political, and social status of immigrants tell us about Roman society in general? To answer these questions (and more), we will look at a wide array of primary sources, including literary texts, inscriptions, and material culture.

In this course we will study the history of the Hellenistic and Roman period from a Near Eastern perspective. From the conquests of Alexander the Great to the end of Roman rule in late antiquity, this region was the scene of conflicts, but also of peaceful and fruitful interactions between Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Jews, Syrians, Arabs and many other societies. What was the impact of Greek and Roman rule and how did the peoples of the region react to these fundamental changes? On the other hand, how did they influence the culture and worldview of their conquerors? We will use historical texts, documents and archaeological evidence to discuss these political, cultural and religious encounters that made the Near East to a key region of Greco-Roman history. All texts will be discussed in translation. No prerequisites, although it would be useful to have some background in Hellenistic and/or Roman history.

Taught by: Julia Wilker

Also Offered As: NELC 384

Activity: Seminar

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 398 Honors Thesis

This course is taken in the spring of the senior year by students admitted to the honors thesis program for the Ancient History major. For policies see the Classical Studies department website.

One-term course offered either term

Activity: Independent Study

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 399 Independent Study

This course is taken by students doing independent work with a faculty advisor, such as students approved to work on a senior research paper in pursuit of honors in the major.

One-term course offered either term

Activity: Independent Study

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 506 MLA Proseminar: Ancient Economies

This class presents an introduction to economies before economics, a study of economic activity in the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Greece and Rome have been called some of the first "global" economies - they engaged in long-distance trade, introduced the first coinage systems, and built and manufactured at large scales. At the same time, they remained agrarian societies, with majority peasant populations, high levels of inequality and social systems that often placed social capital ahead of profit. Using textual sources, archaeology and techniques from the natural and social sciences, this class will not only look at basic elements of economic activity in the ancient world - demographics, trade, monetization, industry - but also ask critical questions about how - or if -modern economic methods can be applied to the distant past. No previous knowledge of the ancient world or economics is necessary.

Taught by: Bowes

Course usually offered in spring term

Activity: Seminar

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 535 Problems in Greek: Archaic and Classical

This seminar is designed to introduce students to the major issues and problems in the early history of Ancient Greece, from approximately 776 BC until the reign of Alexander the Great nearly four hundred and fifty years later. A number of these issues have been the subject of academic investigation for decades: the historicity of Homeric society, the origins of democracy, the reforms of Kleisthenes, the population of Athens, for example. The investigation of many of these problems, however, has received fresh impetus from newer approaches: demographic studies of the Aegean islands, the dating of 5th century inscriptions, the study of Solons poetry have all yielded new insights and transformed our understanding of Greek culture and history. In this seminar we will explore many older questions from newer perspectives, with attention to such recent topics as gender, ethnicity and subaltern studies.The result is a view of Greece that is both more familiar and yet equally more alien.

Most of the primary sources available to us are commonly taken to reflect the ideology, concepts, and realities of Roman imperial rule through the lenses of the central power. However, a number of sources provide insights into how provincials and imperial subjects perceived the empire and their own status within its political, cultural, and social frameworks. In this seminar, we will focus on how ethnic, religious, cultural, and regional identities were developed, maintained, adapted, and interpreted within and in reaction to the empire in concept and reality. Historiographical and auto-ethnographic works, orations, philosophical, and religious texts reflect different attitudes towards the imperial center, ranging from open hostility and frustrated acceptance to praise and identification. Texts to be discussed include canonical works (Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Second Sophistic) as well as lesser-known texts and authors. Special emphasis will be laid on scholarly approaches, including concepts of identity, hybridization and cultural change, the dynamics of imperial integration, and the (de-)construction of modern narratives of Romanization.

Taught by: Wilker

Course not offered every year

Activity: Seminar

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 607 Gloss & Commentary

Activity: Lecture

1.0 Course Unit

ANCH 611 Greek Epigraphy

An introduction to the principles and practices of Greek Epigraphy. Study of selected Greek inscriptions.

The time of the Flavians (69-96 BCE) holds a special place in Roman history and culture as it marks the transition from the Julio-Claudian period to the High Empire. Historically, the rule of Rome's second dynasty saw a stabilization of the imperial power system, the consolidation of social and political hierarchies, and an increasing integration of the empire. Major construction projects reshaped the city of Rome, topographically and ideologically. The literary production in various genres reached a new peak, developed new forms, and explored new topics. The unusually high number of Greek and Latin texts and documents preserved allow us to analyze such changes closely; our focus will be on the interrelation and conjunction of these developments. Final projects will take the form of papers suitable for presentation at the SCS Annual Meeting.

Scholars have long debated the nature of the ancient economy, the terms in which it can best be approached, and the decision-making processes that underpinned economic behavior in antiquity. In particular, controversy has surrounded the extent to which the economies of Greco-Roman antiquity can be modeled using contemporary tools of analysis. In recent scholarship, many of the tenets laid down by Moses Finley in his The Ancient Economy have been re-evaluated, with the result that the field is currently in a state of intellectual ferment. It is the purpose of this course to explore the terms in which contemporary debates over ancient economic systems are formulated, with reference to a variety of societies and periods, from the palace economies of the Mycenaean period to the system of taxation introduced in the early fourth century by the emperor Diocletian and his colleagues in the Tetrarchy.

Sanctuaries remain an important focal point for the study of Greek religion. Both as sites for worship, dedication, oracular activity and other cult activity and as sites for the mediation of elite and state competition sanctuaries are, along with the polis, the most essential structuring institutions of Greek life. This seminar takes a selection of larger and smaller extra-urban sanctuaries and examines their growth, articulation and function.